Averaging 27.1 points and 10.5 boards, Mike Harris was a man on the inside for Rio Grande Valley this season.
I’m sitting here looking at the All-NBA D-League teams and that first-team squad is nice, but then I checked out the honorable mention list.
Hmmmm.
I could pick five guys from that list and seriously challenge the first team.
Stephen Curry has answered all the questions about whether he was too slight in stature to shine early in the NBA.
Ya’ll know Stephen Curry is my guy.
Just do a search of his name on my blog to find out.
When making my predictions for the 2009-10 NBA season, I thought the rookie of the year award would come down to Blake Griffin of Oklahoma and Curry, who was the most exciting college player while at Davidson.
Since Griffin, the top pick in the 2009 draft, had a major injury that cost him the season, (Darn L.A. Clippers curse), Curry became my choice by process of elimination.
For months, people have essentially given the award to Sacramento point guard Tyreke Evans out of Memphis, but Curry has been playing better and better as has his team.
The argument against Curry was the Warriors were a bad team. They still are but the Warriors are 5-5 in their last 10 days. The Kings? 1-9. Both teams are 24-54.
Being part of Don Nelson becoming the all-time winningest coach in NBA history will help Curry, but his play should merit enough to take home the honor.
As of right now, the Erie BayHawks just can’t beat the Iowa Energy.
They are now 0-5 against the D-League’s best team this season after losing 101-87 to Iowa at Tullio Arena on Wednesday night.
Now they have to play their next three games at Iowa, which improved to 23-6 after Wednesday’s win. The Energy are going to only get better when D-League All-Star Cartier Martin rejoins them.
Martin was on an NBA call-up with the Golden State Warriors. If Erie (12-17) loses each of those games, it will find itself needing to climb out a pretty big hole to make the playoffs.
Three major stories involving the D-League this past week:
1. The D-League suspended four players after two altercations in Reno’s 98-90 win against Bakersfield on Tuesday. Reno’s Cezary Trybanski received a two-game suspension, while Bakersfield’s Amara Sy and Rodney Webb were each suspended for one game. Jared Newson, who was waived by the Jam due to injury prior to the game but was seated near the bench in street clothes, received a one-game suspension.. – D-League.
I believe that’s the sixth suspension the D-League has handed down this season, but what’s up with Newsom? Why would he leave the bench if he’s injured?
2. D-League star center Chris Hunter started for Golden State in Friday night’s loss to the Washington Wizards. Hunter was a force at Fort Wayne last season and received an NBA call-up from the Warriors before the D-League season began. Hunter had 0 points on 0-of-3 shooting from the field in eight minutes. He grabbed two rebounds and had one assists.
While he didn’t fare well in his first start, Hunter should be in the NBA.
3. Maine won a D-League high seventh consecutive game in beating the Erie BayHawks, 96-75, Friday night. An expansion team, the Red Claws lead the East Conference with a 7-1 record. They do have several players with NBA players like Billy Thomas and their NBA affiliates -Boston Celtics and Charlotte Bobcats – have sent down a total of three players to them, but the Red Claws play well together.
Have to give credit to coach Austin Ainge, the son of Celtics general manager Danny Ainge, for getting those guys to mesh.
The Milwaukee Bucks-Cleveland Cavaliers game Friday, Dec. 18 is being moved from 7:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. so ESPN can televise it.
As much as people would like to think the change was made so folks can see LeBron James, trust me, the change was made so people could see Bucks rookie point guard Brandon Jennings.
If you haven’t seen this kid, he’s the one who scored 55 points in 41 minutes against the Golden State Warriors earlier this season.
The 6-foot-11, 240-pound Hunter was a force in the paint for the Fort Wayne Mad Ants last season.
Fort Wayne has one of the D-League’s best players in Chris Hunter.
Well, the Mad Ants used to before the Golden State Warriors called up the 6-foot-11, 240-pound center today. So the Erie BayHawks don’t have to concern themselves with stopping him in tonight’s preseason game at Meadville Area High School.
This guy Hunter should be in the NBA anyway. He’s one of the few guys I saw last year who dominated every time I saw him play be live against Erie or on NBA.com against other D-League teams.
In 47 games with Fort Wayne last season, Hunter averaged 19.3 points, 9.5 rebounds and 1.2 blocks in 32.8 minutes.
Good luck, Chris. Do your thing.
Stephen Jackson wants out of Golden State.
The Warriors want to accommodate him, but are there any takers?
According to Mercury News columnist Tim Kawakami, the Cleveland Cavaliers may be. There are reports the Cavaliers are interested in the clutch shooting, but confrontational forward.
Three things to consider on this:
All the talk about Xavier sophomore Jordan Crawford dunking on LeBron James at James’ basketball camp got me to thinking.
Who else has dunked on the reigning MVP?
Nick Young and Al Harrington for starters. Witness for yourself.
